Contact: James Carskadon
STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mindy M. Brashears, United States Department of Agriculture Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety, will give a free lecture at Mississippi State on March 29.
The 9:30 a.m. address will take place in McCool Hall’s Taylor Auditorium and is open to all. Brashears will share her experiences as a woman in science and her vision for the future of women and minorities in science and agriculture. Brashears joined the USDA from Texas Tech University, where she was a professor of food safety and public health and director of the International Center for Food Industry Excellence. Her research program focused on improving food safety standards to make an impact on public health.
Brashears has been nominated to serve as USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety. The distinguished scientist’s research evaluated interventions in pre- and post-harvest environments and the emergence of antimicrobial drug resistance in animal feeding systems. She has led international research teams of students and faculty to Mexico, Central and South America to improve food safety and security in these areas and to set up sustainable agriculture systems in impoverished areas.
As Deputy Under Secretary, Brashears leads the Food Safety and Inspection Service, which has a mission of protecting the public’s health by preventing foodborne illness, modernizing inspection systems, policies and achieving operational excellence.
Brashears’ visit is supported by the MSU Office of Research and Economic Development and the university’s Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine as part of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Women and Minorities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (WAMS) program.
With funding from the USDA WAMS program and MSU’s Office of Research and Economic Development, a cross-college team of MSU women faculty is working to recruit and retain women and minorities in food, agriculture and natural resources-related STEM fields. The group has hosted a campus-wide panel discussion featuring influential women in science disciplines and is working with area high schools to provide agriculture-related research and leadership training to rural female and minority high school students. The project is led by Leslie Burger, an assistant Extension professor in MSU’s Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture.
For more on Brashears, visit https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/informational/aboutfsis/agency-leadership/deputy-under-secretary.
MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.